And so it begins.....

My mom gave Nakiah her second set of early birthday gifts. (The first set were the "stays at Meega's house" gifts) ~ I think the different classifications for Nakiah's gifts are just a way for my mom to spoil Nakiah!! Yesterday she bought Nakiah a new slide, some magnetic letters for the fridge and some very cute new clothes for Nakiah's 1 year pictures on Monday.

We could have left the slide disassembled and Nakiah would have loved it just as much! A bit big for her still, but she LOVES to climb on it!!

I think she is going to be my little daredevil! Learning to spell her name. Its a work in progress. Thank you Meega and Grampa for all of the wonderful gifts!! We really appreciate all of them and can't wait to spend hours and hours playing with them. Thanks for spoiling me, even though Daddy doesn't want me to be spoiled. :-)

A new view...

My mom, Nakiah and I took a trip to Toys R Us and Babies R Us yesterday. We had to put Nakiah's seat in the big truck, so we thought it would be a good time to turn her around.

I think she was a bit shocked at first.

She saw a dog in the bed of the truck in front of us and got soo excited! She kept yelling "dog", "dog". When she realized what a new adventure it was, she got really excited.... ...and maybe a little overwhelmed. It was so much fun!

The first of many....

Corey and I gave Nakiah one of her birthday gifts early..

What can I say, I've never been good with surprises... ;-)

She loved it!! She kept opening and closing the doors,

crawling through the doorway and around the sides. She kept shaking her hands and yelling, I think that means she likes it.

She thought it was pretty funny to look through the windows at me

I can't believe she'll be 1 in just one more week.

Best Friends

Nakiah loves our cat "Trash"

Any time Trash is on the deck, Nakiah will sit at the door and watch her. She'll start grunting and reaching for the door handle, which means she wants to go out and play with the animals.

She's giving Trash a kiss

Tough Girl!

She's showing off her guns!

18 & Still Learning to Count :-)

Happy 18th Birthday to Kelsey!!

We're trying to teach her how to count past 10.

Here is the cake on the first try....

And after I convinced her that she had miscounted.... ;-) Happy Birthday to You!!! Oh how fast 18 years goes by - I love you!!! Eddie & Kelsey....still confused from counting the candles!! Grandma Tami and Lilly The Boyfriend and The Birthday Girl GG & Kelsey Auntie Stinky/Grandma with Nakiah & Lilly. Nakiah really LOVED Lilly and wanted to kiss her and kiss her and kiss her and kiss her.....poor Lilly!

Baby Molly - 2 Weeks Old Nakiah just HAD to touch her.... But if I touch her, then I NEED to kiss her Mommy and her baby girl Curtis, Tami, Lilly & Sophie Blowing Out the Candles Megan, Crystal & Kelsey ~ The Girls Megan, Casey & Kelsey ~ The Kids Casey, Megan, Crystal, Kelsey & Shawn ~ The O'Neils Perfect Christmas Card Nakiah & Lilly

4 Months Apart Fire Girl"Yes I Am Cute, Thank You" Nakiah & Kelsey Giving Daddy Some Loves Happy Birthday Kelsey!!! We hope you had a wonderful day and wish you many more beautiful birthdays. We love you!

Baby Steps

Nakiah took her first group of steps, 3 to be exact, on August 3 when we got home from our Winthrop trip, but mommy didn't have the camera out. I've been trying to capture this ever since, but every time Nakiah sees the camera, she just focuses on getting it and forgets about walking....today was a different story! It may look like Meega is holding on to her, but she isn't

More steps to Meega

Real proof that she did it with no help

Walking to mommy

She's still not brave enough to take more than a few steps at a time, but she's working on it. I'm sure she'll be walking before we know it.....then we'll wonder why we wanted her to be more mobile. :-)

Miss Independent

When Nakiah is tired and she doesn't get what she wants she gets mad and will pitch a fit (not my favorite thing). In this instance, she wanted Corey to hold on to both of her hands and let her walk around. Corey was trying to make her walk holding only one of her hands. She thought it should be done her way!! She stiffened up, threw her head back and started crying.

Corey let go of her hand and she sat herself down and started crying. She had SUCH a pouty face, I couldn't help but take a picture. I know she'll hate these pictures one day, but I love capturing even the most unflattering moments, and in her defense, she was extremely tired, hot and in desperate need of a nap. P.S ~ Confession Time

Before having a messy toddler (or a puky infant for that matter), I would look at messy kids and think "how gross, who just lets their kid be gross". We had taken Nakiah to the park for another picnic dinner and she was eating watermelon and got juice all down the front of her, mix that with the dirt pile she was playing in and you end up with the messy kid pictured above. I now know why those moms had "messy kids". Moral of the story ~ I should spend a little less time judging messy kids and a little more time cleaning up my own. :-)

Lynden Fair

On Monday Corey and I took Nakiah to the Lynden Fair. It was hot and she was tired, so by the end of the day she was ready to get home but she did enjoy the animals, especially the big horses, the cows and the birds. She didn't really care for the goats or the pigs. As always, she LOVED watching all the people. She was so interested in what was going on around her, that I couldn't even get her to eat, not even a snow cone!

Okay, she's been patient long enough, its time to go!! This cow is called Big Ben You can't tell by these pictures, but this thing is enormous!! It is by far the biggest cow I have ever seen, in person or other wise! He stands 6'3" to the top of his shoulder (not counting his head when its lifted). He is 10'6" long and weighs 3300 pounds....NOT your average cow! We had to stop back by on our way home, just because he was that amazing to see. Nakiah in front of a normal size cow for comparison Pointing at the ugly birds.....mommy hated that barn the most!

Birds are a big fear of mine - Have you ever seen the crow movie by Steven King! Getting a little antsy and ready to see some more Corey thought I was being a bit crazy taking these pictures, but I thought these veggie creations were sooo cute! Bottom row all the way to the left is a veggie farris wheel Nakiah learning where bacon comes from Daddy saving Nakiah's fingers About 2 minutes before she fell asleep. Next year she'll be able to enjoy some carnival rides